Finally Finished Skirt - New Look 6056

It's finally done, and to be fair, it is an easy pattern that took me far longer to do than it should.

The skirt is a circle skirt, made from two panels cut on the bias and sewn together, with a waistband and zip.  There are no real complex steps to this, however the sheer volume of fabric can be daunting.

My biggest issue was with the lining I decided to add.  The fabric, a lovely blue satin lining fabric from Pennine Fabrics (£1 per meter!) was a bit of a nightmare to work with, being very slippy. The hem that I did is dreadful, but I can live with it for a first real project.

For the skirt, I opted to follow this tutorial from Colletterie, which worked brilliantly and I have a lovely even hem.

I forgot to take a photo of the skirt close up, and will add one when I remember, but I chose to wear it to go to the Graduate Show for the Art School in Aberdeen, where a few of my friends were showing their work.  A few drinks may have been provided, and I found myself having great fun spinning around in my new skirt...

The skirt cost me around £25 to make once all postage is taken into consideration.  The main material was £2.50 a meter from Greens of Blackburn, who unfortunately appear to have stopped trading online.  As I said before, the lining was a steal at £1 per meter, and I really can't rate Pennine Fabrics highly enough.  I needed 200m of Gutermann thread and one zipper.

I got lots of compliments about the skirt, which felt great, there really is something about being able to say that you made it when asked what shop it is from.  What have you made that gets the most comments?

So, next project is a top to go with the skirt, I have some issues with the pattern, so I'll be addressing them as I go along.

My weekend disasters!

I have no photos for you today, my weekend was a disaster!

As planned, I got up bright and early on Friday morning to finish my first ever skirt.  All I had to do was sew in the zip, do the waistband and hem it...an easy mornings work.

First the zip.  I read my Alison Smith book, I watched some YouTube videos, I stitched the seam up to the zipper point then basted the rest.  I pressed the seam and hand tacked the zip in place. I then tried to secure the zip.

Three hours later, I had a zip that was passable, not pretty, not close to perfect, but unlikely to fall out.  I need to do a lot more research and practise with zips, does anyone have any favourite tutorials?

Then on to the waistband, where I placed the interfacing over the material and pressed, resulting in a lovely big load of interfacing stuck to my iron.  I worked out how to get the rest to just stick to the material, and moved on.  I attached the waistband to the top of the skirt, pinned in place and sewed.  It looked like one of the best rows of stitching I had ever done, neat, straight, just perfect.  Unfortunately, when I went to press it, I noticed I had caught one of the folds of fabric in the stitching, so had to rip it all out again, ripping the fabric too in one place.  When I tried to pin it in place again, it no longer seemed to fit, the waistband was too short! I have no idea what has happened, but at that point the whole project was folded up and put away, I'll try again another day.

I also did manage to very successfully start my lovely flowery skirt, though trying to lay out 5m of fabric in a 2.5m space was quite a lot of fun.  My lining should arrive this morning, and I hope to finish that one over the weekend.

My comic material didn't arrive until yesterday, so have not started that one yet, but planning to make that up tonight so I can wear it to dress down Friday tomorrow, and to my course at night.

I think I may have caught the sewing bug though, last night my husband asked me what was wrong, as I looked both in pain and frustrated.  I had to confess that I was really annoyed I couldn't do any sewing as my leg was insisting I be horizontal.

I hate to do a blog with no photos, so thought I would end by posting one of the vintage patterns I managed to get hold of.  They are all vintage size 16s, so I think I have about 6" to lose off my waist before I make them, but what an incentive!!  I normally go for 1950's styles, but these just looked so much fun (though only planning to make the maxi skirt rather thanh the crazy blouse!)